Providing a wide range of application services including slug pelleting, Avadexing, cover cropping as well as general spraying has proved a successful business formula for agronomist Andrew Wade.

Andrew, who launched OptiGro Limited in 2019, saw an opportunity to support the agronomic input advice he was already giving to farmers with his own application service and confirms it was one of the best business decisions he’s ever made.

Andrew says” The OptiGro business model I operate today is closely based on my former company “i-Gro” originally set up in 2016 in partnership with former colleague and agronomist Luke Hardy. Starting out as an add-on service for local farmers in Shropshire and Staffordshire, the business rapidly developed into something much bigger and, by 2019, we had expanded our customer base into Derbyshire, Warwickshire, Cheshire and parts of Wales before Luke decided to leave the business to concentrate solely on agronomy.

“Due to the increased seasonal demand for our services, particularly within an already congested spring and autumn work window for both growers and contractors, we soon found that one self-propelled sprayer had become four sprayers, one quad bike had become three quad bikes and one Techneat 12M Multicast 400 had become two Multicast 400’s to meet the significant increase in both autumn timed Avadex application and cover cropping as a key move towards more sustainable farming practices.

“Demand from farmers for multi-use air seeders such as the Multicast has always been a key part of our business, largely because these applicators can perform many tasks to simultaneously reduce the number of passes and lower fuel costs. In the last two autumns many farmers in our trading area have experienced very wet weather making establishment of crops increasingly challenging. Drilling decisions are often made at the last minute, so with Avadex application requiring a 48-hour window post-drilling the subsequent investment in a second Multicast was really a no-brainer.

“Having purchased our first Multicast 400 in 2020 and rear-mounted it onto a John Deere 5055 tractor we acquired a light, well-balanced and accurate applicator which has paid for itself many times over during the last 5 years. However, in 2023, in view of the wetter autumns, we decided to mount our second 12M Multicast 400 on an even lighter L2-522 Kubota tractor, enabling the machine to perform in even heavier conditions without any rutting or damage to the soil surface.

“The set-up was very simple. We took a lightweight Multicast applicator weighing around 250kg and mounted it onto a tractor weighing around 2T. To enhance the tractor’s performance, we then ran it on very high-quality Michelin Xeobib 600 tyres designed to operate on much heavier tractors at lower pressures. The result was an incredibly light and versatile system which can applicate small seeds, cover crops or Avadex in even the most extreme soil conditions.

“Working at optimum speeds of 10-12 kph we can readily achieve up to 60ha of Avadex application or cover cropping per day, even when factoring in additional time spent travelling from farm to farm. For greater accuracy we combine the Multicast’s own rate controller with the Trimble GPS unit on each tractor to ensure the application rate, forward speed and accuracy of placement are as precise as possible for customers.

“To keep down-time to an absolute minimum we tend to service and repair the applicators at our Shifnal HQ, with Techneat’s excellent aftersales support team supplying replacement parts within 24 hours. However, given the volume of work that we do with the Multicast’s, we now stock key replacement parts such as the hydraulic fan and twin spreader plates on site, even though a breakdown of any kind is rare with this type of machine” concludes Andrew.